Paraguay Culture and Etiquette Guide

Start with the language, because everything else follows from it. Paraguayan Guarani is an official language of the country, and so is Spanish. The cited record counts 19 living Indigenous languages in Paraguay and notes that one of them is used as a language of instruction in formal education. Guarani is not a heritage language being revived and it is not confined to rural communities: it is in everyday use, in the capital as well as the countryside, and a conversation can move between the two languages inside a sentence.

The practical consequence for a visitor is small and the courtesy is large. Learn two or three words and use them. Mba'eichapa is how are you. Iporante is fine, good. Aguyje is thank you. Using them will change a conversation in a way that a fluent Spanish speaker who never tries will not manage.

Terere, and how to take it

You will be offered terere. There is a circle, there is a server, and the etiquette is simple once you know it:

• The server fills the guampa and hands it to one person at a time. It is not passed around the circle hand to hand.
• Drink all of it. Draining the guampa is expected and is not greedy. Handing it back half finished is the mistake.
• Do not stir or move the bombilla. It is set in the yerba deliberately and shifting it blocks it, which everybody will notice and nobody will mention.
• Hand it straight back to the server. Say aguyje only when you are finished for good, because thanking the server is how you signal that you want no more.

That last convention is the one that trips people up. Politeness at the wrong moment ends your turn.

Greetings and manners

• A handshake for a first meeting. Once you know somebody, a kiss on both cheeks between women, and between a woman and a man, is normal.
• Use usted with anybody older than you and anybody in a position of authority until invited otherwise.
• Punctuality is relaxed socially and expected for business and for buses. Read which one you are in.
• Paraguayans are direct about hospitality and indirect about disagreement. An invitation is usually meant. A no may arrive as a maybe.

The shape of the day

In the warm months the day is split by the heat. Business and errands happen early, the middle of the day is for lunch and rest, and social life restarts in the late afternoon and runs well into the evening. Visitors who try to compress this into an American working day have a hotter, more frustrating trip than those who adopt it.

Photographs and sensitivities

• Ask before photographing people, particularly at markets, at religious events and in Indigenous communities. The answer is often yes and being asked is the point.
• Indigenous peoples other than the Guarani majority live in Paraguay, particularly in the Chaco, and communities are not exhibits. Visit with an operator who works with them and pays them, or do not visit.
• The war of 1864 to 1870 and the dictatorship that ended in 1989 are both live subjects in Paraguayan families. Listen more than you offer.

Dress

Casual and neat. Shorts are normal in the heat and less so in churches and government buildings. The cited safety advice is worth following on jewelry: conspicuous valuables make a target of you, and nothing about a Paraguayan evening requires them. The packing list works through what that means for a suitcase, and the food guide covers the table the terere circle sits beside.

Sources

• Ethnologue, SIL International: Paraguay country language record: Paraguayan Guarani recorded as an official language of the country and Spanish recorded as also an official language, 19 living indigenous languages, and one indigenous language used as a language of instruction in formal education. Accessed 17 September 2026.
• UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage: Practices and traditional knowledge of Terere in the culture of Poha Nana, Guarani ancestral drink in Paraguay, inscribed on the Representative List in 2020, recording a drink prepared in a jug or thermos in which cold water is mixed with Poha Nana crushed in a mortar. Accessed 17 September 2026.
• UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office: Paraguay safety and security: the record that groups may set up blockades along the main roads and in downtown Asuncion near government buildings, that bag snatching and pickpocketing are a problem on public transport, the advice to use cash machines inside buildings and to call a licensed taxi from a landline or a hotel rather than hailing one in the street, the note that photo identification may be asked for when paying by credit card, and the assessment that although there is no recent history of terrorism in Paraguay attacks cannot be ruled out. Accessed 17 September 2026.